Shepherd's Garage

Jesus loves the church.  How can we love as he does?

Want to meet a man in love?  This sermon looks at Nehemiah and how he loves the Lord and wants to make sure He is glorified.

As we continue the series, "he other Christian trinity," (faith, hope, love) we turn our attention to love.  God is not concerned with our feelings so much as our actions when he commands us to love one another.  How can we do this?

Hope has several elements but learning to he a good "waiter" is important.  So is integrity.  Hope depends on our integrity.

Hope.  Christian hope is not wishful thinking.  It is grouded in God and His faithfulness.  Hope is also not a feeling.  Sometimes hope is still moving forward when you do not feel like it.  Think of hope this way:  Hope is making heaven happen here.

The steadfast love of the Lord sounds good to our ears.  However, have you noticed the context in which those words are written.  It was a time of lost hope.  Yet it speaks of hope so beautifully.  Hope is hard.  Hope is not some emotion we have it's a commitment that God is merciful and will keep his word.

Faith is belief, trust and obedience but is there another word we could use besides faith.  Matthew Bates has suggested that the word allegiance may be a better word to use in understading the Biblical idea of faith.

When reading Hebrews 11 there are at least three elements to faith.  Belief, trust and obedience.  Focus for today is on trust.

Faith is certainly belief but it also is a recognition of the authority of Jesus and obedience to him.

What is the gospel and what does it mean that Jesus is messiah?  The gospel is so much more than Jesus died for our sins.  Messiah may be better understood as king.